Problem: Factor the following expression: $x^2 + 3x - 4$
Explanation: When we factor a polynomial, we are basically reversing this process of multiplying linear expressions together: $ \begin{eqnarray} (x + a)(x + b) &=& xx &+& xb + ax &+& ab \\ \\ &=& x^2 &+& {(a + b)}x &+& {ab} \end{eqnarray} $ $ \begin{eqnarray} \hphantom{(x + a)(x + b) }&\hphantom{=}&\hphantom{ xx }&\hphantom{+}&\hphantom{ (a + b)x }&\hphantom{+}& \\ &=& x^2 & +& {3}x& & {-4} \end{eqnarray} $ The coefficient on the $x$ term is $3$ and the constant term is $-4$ , so to reverse the steps above, we need to find two numbers that add up to $3$ and multiply to $-4$ You can try out different factors of $-4$ to see if you can find two that satisfy both conditions. If you're stuck and can't think of any, you can also rewrite the conditions as a system of equations and try solving for $a$ and $b$ $ {a} + {b} = {3}$ $ {a} \times {b} = {-4}$ The two numbers $-1$ and $4$ satisfy both conditions: $ {-1} + {4} = {3} $ $ {-1} \times {4} = {-4} $ So we can factor the expression as: $(x {-1})(x + {4})$